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Kids At Their Best presents HawkQuest raptor program

A Kids At Their Best participant seizes a photo opportunity with the great horned owl during the HawkQuest presentation on Wednesday in Log Lane Village. (Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times)

A great horned owl stares at the Kids At Their Best students at the Log Lane Village Town Hall during the HawkQuest program on Wednesday. The owl was one of five raptors, or predatory birds, that appeared in the program. (Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times)

Kids At Their Best students got up close and personal with some birds of prey on Wednesday.

In the latest in a series of educational events planned for this summer, KATB hosted presentations by the nonprofit organization HawkQuest in Wiggins and Log Lane Village. Based in Parker, HawkQuest cares for birds of prey, or raptors, that cannot be released into the wild due to injury or being bred in captivity, and uses them for educational programs all over Colorado. Wednesday marked the first time KATB had hosted one of these programs.

Melissa Tofflemoyer, of HawkQuest, catches a Harris's hawk during her presentation for Kids At Their Best in Log Lane Village on Wednesday. (Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times)

About 25 students and staff attended the Log Lane Village event in the Town Hall. Melissa Tofflemoyer, a volunteer with HawkQuest, taught them about the different tools various raptor species use to hunt their prey. She also brought five live birds: a Harris' hawk, a great horned owl, an American kestrel, a falcon and a golden eagle. In between explaining facts about the birds' biology and eating habits, she flew some of them around the room and allowed kids to get their pictures taken with them.

Although a few of the younger children got a bit nervous around the birds, that didn't stop them from asking questions and volunteering to get up close to them throughout the presentation.

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"We're really excited we could do this," Jodi Walker, director of KATB, said. "[HawkQuest] has never come here before."

She said the Fort Morgan location would have done a presentation too, but they couldn't find an air-conditioned location that would be safe for the birds.

HawkQuest puts on about 600 educational programs per year, but they also put an emphasis on caring for the birds themselves, as well as promoting conservation. Right now the organization has 33 raptors from all over the country.

"We give these birds a second chance at life," Tofflemoyer said.

The next KATB event planned for this summer is the Great Space Escape, a planetarium exhibit that will be put on by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science at the Wiggins Fire Hall.

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